Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Occasionally I read an article that is so good that it is obvious that it was quickly written in a fit of inspiration. Like last weeks USC/Texas Rose Bowl game, this one is an "instant classic". My friend David Wayne has written one of these today: Rick Warren on Fundamentalism.

Nothing I can say will add much value to what David has already written but I will give a couple of excerpts as a teaser:

"I think Warren made a slip of the tongue here and was just being careless in his speech when he said he wants evangelicals to trade words for deeds but it is a crucial mistake. To "trade" means to replace one with the other, and to trade a "word orientation" to ministry for a "deed orientation" is fatal to the faith. The fruit of the gospel shows itself in deeds, but the message of the gospel is only communicated in words. Where there are no words there is no gospel. Again I am sure this was a slip of the tongue, as I know Warren desires to preach the gospel, as he understands it, wherever he goes. But its still a fatal slip."

"The biggest gripe I have about Warren is that he is fundamentally like the fundamentalists he disapproves of, and he has much in common with the modernists whose doctrinal views he denies. Fundamentalists, modernists and Warrenists have this in common - Christianity is a religion defined by its deeds, not by the gospel. In the Pew Forum interview he says he wants to create a reformation of deeds, not creeds. That is the very undoing of Christianity because Christianity begins with the presupposition that all of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags in the sight of God. Yes I know the fundamentalists and Warrenists will scream bloody murder when I say this. They wil say, "well of course the gospel is primary." But the problem is they don't say that."